The Silver Beetle
by Thisis A. Pseudonym
Summary: The Silver Beetle, which links humans to animals, has been stolen and Naruto's team is sent to retrieve it. If it is killed, the whole world will fall into chaos. This is my first story so please R&R! OC's used. Rated T for violence.
1. The Boy and the Bug

This is my first story! Please Read (and be merciful if it stinks)!

Disclaimer: I admit, I don't own Naruto; but I do own this: Bobby Joe Chicken walked down the street and was hit by a car. THE END.

Chapter 1

Naruto slurped his ramen hungrily, and finished it within a matter of seconds. The unfortunate woman next to him stared him wide-eyed and thoroughly disgusted. She got up and left then.

"Wow!" Ayame said. "This must be a new record!"

"No," Naruto explained. "My record is 32 bowls of ramen, and I'm only at 29. Getting close though!"

Just then, Sakura charged into Ichiraku, grabbing Naruto's jumpsuit and yanking him out. "Gotta go! No time to explain!"

"Hey! I was just about to eat my next bowl of ramen!" Naruto complained

"And, he hasn't paid the bill yet!" Teuche interrupted.

"The b-bill…" Naruto stammered. Teuche handed the bill to him, and Naruto just stared at it.

"What?" Sakura asked, glancing at the piece of paper in Naruto's hands. "How much ramen did you eat?!" she screamed, when seeing the total. "Gr. Oh, well. This will have to do." She jammed her hand into Naruto's pocket, tore out the frog wallet and slapped it on the counter.

"Hey! That was my wallet!" Naruto complained. Sakura then practically dragged him the rest of the way to the Hokage's office where they were going to be assigned a B- ranked mission that Naruto clearly forgot. Weird, normally Naruto would be excited at this.

"The mission," Tsunade explained once a panting Sakura brought Naruto into the room, "is to retrieve this." She handed them a sketch of what looked like a small beetle with glowing red eyes.

"The silver beetle?" Sakura said. "You know that is just a myth."

"It is. Was. Yesterday, a genin discovered a person with it, though he didn't know what it was. Next time he looked, the person was gone. Apparently it was stolen."

"Stolen?!" Sakura said in disbelief.

"Yes. It is in Wind Country, probably on the outskirts of the Sand Village, although we do not know exactly where."

"So, um, what exactly is the Silver Beetle?" Naruto asked shyly. Everyone froze.

"You don't know anything, do you?" Sakura asked. "The Silver Beetle belongs to the Ishii clan. They won't reveal what it does, or anything else about it for that matter. All we know is that it was made around the time of the founding of the Leaf Village and has belonged to their clan since. This was never confirmed and many claim that it never existed."

"Hang on," Kakashi said, "if someone was guarding it, why are you sending us?"

"They are not a ninja. An anvil was found at the scene, and ninjas don't go around carrying anvils, do they? Anyway, this mission will take about a week, so someone else will join you on this mission. A Jounin."

"Ha! We don't need the help of a Jounin!" Naruto proclaimed. "We can do this ourselves!"

"Here he comes now," Tsunade said, ignoring Naruto. This made him rather annoyed.

The door opened to reveal a boy about Naruto's age, maybe a little older, with messy brown hair and turquoise eyes. He wore a blue t-shirt with red at the waist and ends of the sleeves, with brown shorts that went to his knees, but that was all he wore.

"This is Yutaka Ishii. He is from the Ishii clan himself," the Hokage explained.

"He's a jounin?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes…" Yutaka responded.

"He has already been briefed and is ready to go," Tsunade explained. "You will leave first thing tomorrow morning."

"Hai!" they all responded.

………………………………

Naruto spent the rest of the day packing. He wondered what Yutaka was like and whether he really was a jounin. This would be his hardest and longest mission yet, right next to the one to the Mist Village. He also wondered what the Silver Beetle was like. What sort of powers did it have? How come it was so important to them? He hoped he would find answers to all of these questions on his mission.

……

Sakura made sure she had all of the supplies that she needed for the upcoming mission. She couldn't help but wonder, though, what powers did the Silver Beetle have? Did it give the Ishii clan some sort of power? And how on Earth was it made?

……

Sasuke quickly packed and then took a nap. His dream was about their mission. He was in a cave beneath the Sand Village with everybody else. They were locked in a death match against five other ninja. Yutaka was near death, and three of their opponents were dead. Sasuke was pinned to a wall by an enemy ninja, and Kakashi and Naruto were fighting the other one. Sakura was helping Yutaka, but her efforts didn't amount to much. Then, the ninja that was fighting threatened to kill the bug (which was alive). Everybody screamed not to, and Sasuke tried to go help Naruto and Kakashi, but the ninja that held him cut off his arm like he had threatened to do before. Pain shot through what remained of his arm and he couldn't help but scream. That is when he did it. The ninja killed the bug, and Yutaka died with it. Then Sasuke woke up.

……

Kakashi quickly packed and then took a nap. His dream was about him riding a unicorn being chased by flying pink hippos and corrupted garbage trucks. He really should stop eating raw fish before bed.

……

Yutaka was worried. The sacred Silver Beetle had been stolen. He couldn't believe that it had been. It wouldn't just kill the entire clan on the spot if it died, the whole world would be plunged into disaster. The silver beetle was the one thing that connected humans with animals. Well, the best he could do was put on a light-hearted façade and hope for the best. It was times like this where he wondered how he had passed the Jounin Exams. We will never know.


	2. The Two Secrets

Disclaimer: No

Disclaimer: No. DISCLAIMER: No. **DISCLAIMER: **Fine. I admit I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 2

"What is taking him so long?!" Naruto screamed. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Yutaka were waiting at the village gate. Once again, Kakashi was late. Sakura groaned.

"Is he always this late?" Yutaka asked.

"Sadly, yes," Sasuke responded. "And he always makes up some random lame excuse."

"Hey, guys!" Kakashi said, dropping in from above. "I was just helping a lady escape from pink flying hippos, then I stopped to buy a book, but I dropped it and it was eaten by a garbage can."

"Wow," responded Yutaka. "Sasuke was right."

"So, let's go!" Kakashi said.

They all headed off. Everybody was quiet for a while until Naruto asked, "Hey Yutaka, what exactly does the Silver Beetle do?"

"Normally it is forbidden to tell anybody outside the clan about it, but seeing as it will help you understand the severity of this mission, I will tell you," Yutaka said while making some hand signs, "although you will have to promise mw that you won't tell anyone who doesn't already know."

"I promise."

"And you, Sasuke?"

"Hm?" Sasuke said.

"If I tell you guys what the Silver Beetle does, you have to promise me that you will not tell anyone."

"Alright."

"And you, Sakura?"

She nodded.

"Kakashi?"

"Sure."

"Alright then," Yutaka began. "The Silver Beetle is what links humans to animals and nature. Its holders, the Ishii clan, receive animal powers as a bloodline, although if it dies, the entire clan will also die at the exact same time, and eventually the whole world will also follow. For it to be stolen, imagine somebody stealing Sasuke's Sharingan." He could see Sasuke's horrified look out of the corner of his eye. "Most people claim that it was made at the founding of the leaf village, but it was actually created gradually, and is still being created today. It is made of the hopes and dreams of those past; every time a person dies, it grows a little bit larger. It started small, but today it is slightly larger than the average beetle. I hope that you don't have entomophobia."

"Anti- what?" Naruto asked.

"Never mind."

"So, basically, the fate of the world is in our hands," Sakura summarized.

"Pretty much," Yutaka responded.

"No pressure there," Sasuke said sarcastically.

"So, what was that jutsu you performed before making us promise no to tell anyone?" Kakashi asked.

"I placed a steak in all of your hearts. If you tell anyone that I told you this or tell anyone what the Silver Beetle does, it will permanently stop your chakra flow and you will never be able to perform a jutsu again. It could also kill you, though it is unlikely."

"Creepy," Naruto responded.

"Stop," Kakashi said suddenly said, and everybody stopped. Kakashi put his finger to where his lips would be behind his mask and ran into the forest.

After a few seconds, they heard a blood-curdling scream. Worried thoughts ran through their heads. After a few more seconds, Kakashi came back with a man (Yutaka thought he was a ninja, since even he didn't detect him) who just had his legs cut off. That's probably what the blood-curdling scream was.

"I caught this guy spying on us. Does anybody know any jutsus we could use for interrogation?" Kakashi asked.

"What about the jutsu that you used on us, Yutaka?" Sakura asked.

Yutaka thought for a moment then responded, "Sure, I guess that could work."

He walked up to the spy and made the familiar hand signs then said, "You will answer my questions and you will answer them truthfully. Understood?"

He made a few grumbling noises.

"I said, understood?" Yutaka said, kicking his left stump.

The spy yelled a shriek of pain and then said, "Understood."

"Good. Now, who are you spying for?"

He grumbled.

"Say it."

"I work for The Secret Ensemble."

"And where are you based?"

"What's it to you?" Just as he said that, the spy felt a sharp pain in his chest. "Ack!" He said.

"That's what it is to me. You didn't answer my question truthfully, thus activating my jutsu. Your chakra flow has been stopped permanently, so you can never perform a jutsu for the rest of your life, not that that'll be very long."

"That's all just big talk. Watch me!" He said. The spy made some hand signs, but nothing happened.

"This will continue until you tell me where you are based."

"We are in the Sand Village."

"And what do you hope to achieve by spying on us?"

"…"

Yutaka kicked his stub again and said, "One more time resisting and I'll amputate another limb. Now, what do you hope to achieve by spying on us?"

After screaming a little more, he thought. If he didn't give away strictly classified information to them, they would kill him. He didn't want to die, or be tortured, but he couldn't just give them the info. What should he do? He didn't believe in lying. "We…"

"You…"

"I… won't say." He was probably going to kill him either way, and he had already given away too much information about the Ensemble.

Yutaka was rather mad, but as he said, he cut off the spy's arm. Not with a weapon, but one of his jutsus. He sent a wave of compressed air toward his shoulder, which cut through like a blade, and the spy's left arm was no longer part of his body. The spy let out another scream of pain.

Sasuke was reminded of his dream. The blood, the pain, the violence. Wow. Something was wrong. Normally he didn't think this way. All he used to want was revenge, but he was rethinking that now. Then again, he had to think of the pain Itachi caused against his clan. Suddenly, Sasuke wanted revenge again. All was normal. Except that he wondered if he should tell everyone about his dream. He decided against it for now.

"Just answer me this one question," Yutaka said. "Did your group steal the Silver Beetle?"

"YES!! Yes we did! Now just leave me alone!"

"That's all we wanted to hear," Yutaka said walking away. Sasuke, Kakashi, and Naruto followed him.

"Well, we can't just leave him here," Sakura objected.

"Yeah we can," Kakashi said.

"No! If we just leave him here, he will die!"

"Exactly!" the spy interrupted.

"You be quiet," Sasuke demanded.

"But don't I get a say in my own fate?"

"No, so shut up."

"Hmph."

"Sakura, it's four against one. We're leaving him." The group left, leaving the spy behind. He had to find some way to convince them to take him with them. That girl was already edgy.

"Well, I guess I just have to wait here until I die. I ought to come up with some good last words, though I don't have long," the spy whined. "Oh, just leave me here. I can somehow do in the afterlife." It wasn't working, though he could see that the girl wanted to help him. "Oh, please help me! I won't be much trouble! I'll fight by your side!" by now, they were almost out of sight. "I can juggle!"

"But you only have one arm!" yelled back the boy who interrogated him so very painfully.

He was right. The spy gave it up. He rolled over onto his back then groaned. Vultures were circling above him, and they were right to. He was loosing a dangerous amount of blood, and was probably going to die soon. He'd better think up some last words soon like he said he was going to. "Good bye, world. It was nice knowing you," he said. Then he took one last look at the sky and thought that he was going to be there in a matter of seconds. He wondered what it would be like. Then, as if to answer that question, he died.


End file.
